The reviewer who said this was very different from the first one was wrong. It's almost exactly the same. It follows the same formula the first one did...

Villain's into'd
Girl gets kidnapped/held hostage
Batman shows up, beats the crap out of the low level goons
Batman and the big fat guy have a showdown
Batman and main villain throwdown
Batman wins

That's both of your films in a nut shell.

Onto the actual film...

Again, the premise of this sequel is pretty much the same as the last one. What I didn't understand, and an opportunity I think you missed out on was, instead of having the Riddler hold some random Wayne employee hostage, why not hold Wayne himself hostage?

You've done the damsel in distress formula before. Not to mention, I don't understand why the Riddler would hold some useless secretary hostage instead of the man whom he blames for the economy.

I did not like the Riddler at all. Number one, there were zero riddles. At least in the sense of giving Batman something to do besides beat people up. It seemed like the Riddler was just Joker-lite. He dressed like the Joker, acted like the Joker, etc. They are two completely different characters. Palangi was seemed to just play one character, but with a different name.

Batman has been made to be pretty useless and overall boring in both of your efforts. He had ONE line in the entire story. "Go home". Very underwhelming. He's the most interesting character in his world. Why is he being pushed aside for a Joker rip-off?

Also, not only was his character development extremely ignored, he did nothing while he was on film besides stand around, spread his cape, beat people up, and stare down the bad guy. You've made him into a boring piece of cardboard, and worst of all, he's just a plot tool, who's only there to further move the story. That's the villain's job. Batman shouldn't be in the film to give the bad guy something to do, it should be the other way around.

The end was way too long. It took forever to finish and dragged the whole way through. The main issue during this scene is that we only hear the Riddler rattling off hollow dialogue. Batman, per usual in you films, just stands there, and says nothing. He does talk you know. In case you haven't read the comics, he talks a lot.

Overall, while the quality and writing are just a tad bit better than the first one, the overall product still is not very well done. You need to learn how to get out of formulaic stories, and try to do something a little different. Turn the point of view around. Tell a story form Batman's perception. Give him something important to do, rather than just using him as a tool for the villain's to play off of.